[EBB Sightings] Coyote Hills - Brown Thrasher seen 11:40am

Hi Kris:

Hoping the thrasher will still be around this Saturday.

Some questions:

1)  Where is "the tree with poison ivy"?  Poison Oak?
2)  Where is "the trail leading up to the rock structures"?
3)  Where is "he poison oak along the paved trail"?
4)  Where is the Quarry Area?

>From the photos we cannot really make out the location?

Is this perhaps the Brown Thrasher seen earlier in San Mateo County?

--
Mike Feighner, Livermore, CA, Alameda County
 

>-----Original Message-----
>From: sightings-bounces at diabloaudubon.com 
>[mailto:sightings-bounces at diabloaudubon.com] On Behalf Of Kris Olson
>Sent: Tuesday, March 10, 2009 8:41 PM
>To: sightings at diabloaudubon.com
>Subject: [EBB Sightings] Coyote Hills - Brown Thrasher seen 11:40am
>Birders,
>I arrived at Coyote Hills about 11:15AM today and found Scott 
>Terrill. He said he had arrived 15 minutes earlier and been 
>told that no one had seen the Brown Thrasher today - with one 
>birder, at least, arriving before 8AM.
>Scott and I checked the tree with poison ivy wrapped around 
>it, where the thrasher was seen yesterday. We checked bushes 
>along the trail leading up to the rock structures. Then we 
>checked the poison oak along the paved trail-- parallel with 
>the center of the parking lot, and we found the BROWN THRASHER.  
>About 30 minutes later, after Scott had left, I was hiking up 
>the steep trail going to the rock structures, and the Brown 
>Thrasher appeared right at the base of this  path, again in 
>poison oak. I was trying to imitate a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 
>mew -- and attracted a Common Yellowthroat and the Brown 
>Thrasher instead. In the same bush, by the way, was a Fox 
>Sparrow and Hermit Thrush - so lots of brown/rusty spotted birds. 
>So I would check all around the Quarry area, especially in 
>poison oak. It seems to move around a lot.
>The first place Scott and I saw the thrasher today is in 
>poison oak/willows that are next to the paved trail, near an 
>indistinct path leading from about the center of the parking 
>lot across a grass median. The path is close to the largest 
>tree out there. The Thrasher was in the bushes directly across 
>from this tree/path-- bushes that border the rushes and ponds. 
>You are looking East (per Scott's watch) but feel as if you 
>are looking South (at least Scott and I did) -- sort of back 
>towards the entrance to the park-- when you face the right 
>bushes. I included a photo on Flickr to show the location. Not 
>hard to find.
>Second time--it was in the poison oak near the base of the 
>trail to the top of the rock structure. This trail goes 
>straight up from the far end of the parking lot. You don't 
>need to hike up very far.
>The Brown Thrasher was first seen on Feb. 13 -- in the Quarry 
>area (and reported 2/18 by Stephen Long):
>"The bird was just up the hill from the first big parking lot 
>inside the gate, the so-called Quarry Staging Area.  It 
>perched on a short conifer for a minute or so -- long enough 
>for Lauryn [Benedict] to get a scope on it, and show each of 
>the ten students the bird."  Lauryn also took another section 
>of the class to Coyote Hills on Saturday.  She looked for the 
>thrasher on Saturday, but did not find it.
>Good luck!
>Kris Olson
>Menlo Park
>Photos (including a couple of the areas where it was seen, so 
>you can sight them better than my words enable):
>http://www.flickr.com/photos/27741504 at N08/sets/
>I also saw a Purple Finch deep in the poison oak. Do they 
>frequent Coyote Hills?